1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wrist mounts for timepieces and the like; and more particularly to an orthotic mount for use by pilots and others, in activities that entail orientation of the forearm vertically with the radial aspect of the wrist directed toward the eyes.
2. Prior Art
Many patents have pointed out that the flat sides of the wrist are troublesome places for mounting wristwatches. When carried on the flat parts of the wrist, timepieces are exposed for breakage--and disposed awkwardly for viewing, even by users in general.
The latter problem is particularly acute, however, for airplane pilots. In operation of a plane, the pilot's forearm is generally held vertical, with the radial aspect or nearer "edge" of the wrist directed toward the pilot's eyes. To permit reading of a watch that is carried on the flat side of the wrist, the arm must almost always be rotated.
Such rotation is not only about the long axis of the arm. Watches are generally oriented for ease of reading while the forearm is disposed transversely across the user's field of view. Thus twisting of the pilot's head or outward swinging of the elbow is required to mutually align the watch face and the field of vision. This viewing awkwardness is compounded by the fact that rotation of the forearm tends to loosen or perturb the pilot's grip on the steering mechanism.
Also difficult to read, because of vibration and changing orientation of the entire airplane, is a timepiece mounted to the control console. In precisely this special context of aircraft operation, however, the exact time must always be available for calculations required in navigation and in traffic-control maneuvers.
Hence in the airplane-piloting context the difficulty of using a wristwatch is aggravated, while the desirability of doing so is enhanced.
Among prior patents that have proposed to alleviate the general wristwatch-mounting problem by securing watches on the edge of the wrist are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,375,958 to Cooper, 2,187,205 to Katz, 2,226,138 to Prestinari, and 4,575,833 to Bakhtiari. Some of these will be discussed in greater detail shortly, and as will be seen they are not adequate to solve the problem for pilots.
Patents disclosing the possibility of orienting the vertical elements of the watch face parallel to the long dimension of the forearm include the Bakhtiari patent just mentioned, and also U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,562,607 to Ford, 1,874,984 to Hanskat, 1,260,278 to Smith, and 804,493 of McCarthy.
Of these, only Smith shows orientation of the watch with the stem projecting parallel to the long dimension of the forearm. Even this showing appears, however, to be due only to the peculiar coincidence that this early-1900s patent merely provides a wrist-wear adapter for a pocket watch--and the pocket-watch stem of course issues from the part of the case above the "12" on the dial.
In fact, Smith somewhat apologizes for, and even teaches away from, this orientation. He provides a slotted opening in his wrist adapter, for rotating the watch about the operating axis of its works. Smith explains:
"This construction enables the user to so position the watch that the stem thereof, instead of projecting at right angles from the strap, as indicated in FIG. 1 of the drawings, will lie parallel with and above the strap [to] facilitate the winding of the watch." PA0 "By having a watch curved to fit the side of the wrist and of such curvature that it would not fit the top and bottom of the wrist, the watch will stay on the side of the wrist."
Hence Smith teaches that for ease of manual operation the watch stem should issue from the case along the line of the wrist strap.
The McCarthy invention, a motorman's watch carrier, is of interest in that it illustrates how bodily stances taken in operation of some earlier kinds of transportation equipment were more accommodating of the usual orientation of a watch to a wrist. Another patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 1,098,369 to De Witt, showing a watch aligned at roughly forty-five degrees to the forearm axis.
These prior wrist-mount configurations that teach radial-aspect mounting actually do little more than attempt to accommodate the size of the radial aspect of the wrist. They fail to accommodate its external shape common to people in general, and the variations in such shape among individuals; and even more to accommodate the internal specific anatomy of particular wearers. All these failings undoubtedly account for the failure of these mounts to appear or at least to persist in the marketplace.
First as to external shape, the wrist joint has certain outward projections from its several small structural elements--the eight small carpal bones that form the working parts of the wrist joint itself. Therefore the radial aspect of the wrist joint is not merely thin, but also very convoluted in shape.
Furthermore, in operation of the wrist for normal functions these outward projections undergo complicated shifts of dimension and relative position. Hence "the" shape which prior mounts fail to accommodate is actually not a single shape at all, but rather a dynamically changing three-dimensional complex.
Thus earlier efforts toward size accommodation were somewhat marginal. The best of these appears to be represented by the Cooper patent mentioned above.
Cooper teaches use of a sheet-metal adapter that fits between the wrist and the watch. Part of this adapter can be bent to follow the overall gross contour of the radial aspect, and the metal holds the shape to which it is bent.
As will be apparent, such a hard, sturdy adapter is desirable to provide a stable platform for the watch--but is only to a very limited extent able to accommodate the various small bony projections of the wrist. It is almost entirely inadequate to accommodate complex motion of those projections.
Cooper's adapter will be realtively uncomfortable and annoying in use, particularly in protracted use that involves active manual operation of equipment such as the controls of an aircraft. Other patents teaching radial-aspect mounting are even less helpful.
Katz and Bakhtiari, for example, do not go as far as Cooper in accommodating the complicated shapes and motions of the wrist. They merely provide relatively narrow case structures and thus are rather primitive in addressing the real physical problem involved. For example, Katz proposes
Prestinari analogously gives his entire wristwatch case a hooked shape, to lock it into place over one ridge of the radius. He makes no effort to deal with the complexity of fit to the wrist.
In fact, although both Katz and Prestinari describe their inventions as "wrist" mounts, they perhaps more forthrightly illustrate their inventions being worn on a relatively featureless portion of the arm--well away from the actual joint of the wrist. Such locations, often covered by clothing, are of course a poor compromise.
The foregoing comments on failure of prior inventions to accommodate external wrist shape apply to people generally; when individual variations are taken into account, as can now be appreciated, these problems are compounded severely. Some of the inventions described above may be suited to people in an average range of external wrist configurations, particularly when wrist manipulations are very simple; but for people whose wrists are not in such an average range, the prior work in this field is particularly inadequate.
I shall turn now to the problems of accommodating elements of specific anatomy. By this I mean bodily features that are out of sight within the wrist, but familiar to physicians and particularly surgeons.
The wrist has bony prominences which often cause pain when the forearm and wrist are enclosed in a cast; modernly efforts are made to design casts to remove or redistribute pressure away from these prominences. Between two bony prominences, in a fibrous tunnel, is an extensor tendon to the thumb. When that tendon is irritated, a troublesome malady known as "De Quervain's syndrome" arises. Also extending within the wrist is a nerve known as the "radial nerve," which can cause a painful neuroma if rubbed.
Such considerations typically may be negligible to most people in the great majority of occupations. Most activities involve only occasional reference to a wristwatch and impose little in the way of constraints on the orientation and use of the wrist.
These considerations, however, become extremely important for special activities such as piloting an aircraft. In such activities, detailed and accurate checking of the time must sometimes be performed at quite frequent intervals, and constantly maintaining proper grip on control mechanisms for very protracted periods can be crucial to safe operation of the craft.
In summary, prior artisans have perennially addressed the commonly recognized problems of readability, comfort, convenience and safety in wristwatch mounting for use in ordinary activities. None, however, has adequately resolved those problems.
As to wristwatch mounting for special activities such as piloting of airplanes, prior efforts are not even close to an adequate solution. In precisely these special contexts, however, correct time must always be available at a moment's notice for proper, safe performance of the special activity itself.
Certain other prior information may be relevant to my present invention. To the best of my knowledge no connection has previously been suggested between this additional information and the above-described problems of wristwatch mounting on the edge of the wrist, or the problems of aircraft pilots in reading watches. This additional information is drawn from two areas.
First, at least two prior patents teach provision of a resilient pad applied under an otherwise conventional wristwatch. These are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,562,607 to Ford (mentioned above) and 3,149,452 to Smith.
The Ford patent shows a pad that is captured within a downward-facing cavity in the underside of the watch case; Ford does not indicate or illustrate the part of the wrist on which he intends his invention to be worn. Smith shows his invention worn on the flat of the wrist.
The second area of relevant information is not related to wristwatches at all. It certainly has not been suggested for use in addressing the problems discussed above.
This second area is the modern medical field of orthopedics. In this field it is known to fabricate a splint or "orthosis" in two separate pieces.
One of the pieces is an external casing, typically constructed in perhaps a half-dozen different standard sizes. The other piece is a resilient pad, custom-molded to fit the anatomy of the individual user, and to fit within the appropriate standard-size casing. Naturally the resilience of the pad is selected to suit the therapeutic circumstances involved.
As already mentioned, neither of these two types of prior information has been applied to the above-discussed problems of aircraft pilots. Neither has been used to particularly aid pilots or others in special activities requiring quick, easy access to wristwatches and like instruments.